10-13/04/2009 - THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE 2 - BASEL (CH)

In 1964 Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert wrote "The Psychedelic Experience", a manual based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, intended for guiding psychedelic sessions. This work is largely based on a series of loose experiments in psychology, conducted by Dr. Timothy Leary and the Harvard Psilocybin Project.

"The Marsh Chapel Experiment" in 1962 was one example of the Project's activities. It was run by Walter N. Pahnke, a graduate student in theology at Harvard Divinity School, under Leary's supervision. Their aim was to see if in religiously predisposed subjects psilocybin mushrooms would act as reliable entheogen. The participants, graduate degree theology students, took part on a double-blind experiment on Good Friday. The students were randomly divided into two groups; half of the students received psilocybin, while a control group received a psychoactive placebo, niacin. Nine out of ten students of the experimental group reported experiencing profound religious experiences, providing empirical support for the notion that psychedelics can facilitate religious experiences.

On the day of our event, we will present a series of lectures and workshops discussing the issue of "Psilocybin as an Entheogen". We will focus on 3 aspects: the botanical, the historical and the religious aspect of the effects of psilocybin mushrooms.

The botanical aspect will be demonstrated by a mycologist, showing how the "magic mushrooms" are grown and what role they play in nature’s seasonal cycles. The historical and cultural perspectives will be explained by Roger Liggenstorfer. The religious, shamanic and ethnological aspects will be covered by (TBC). After these lectures and workshops there will be a will a Question & Answer session with all speakers.

In the evening after and during the night, an audio-visual ceremony will simulate & stimulate the connectivity and synchronicity, and strengthen our desire for peace, love & empathy. The ceremony will try to recapture the acquired knowledge on a more sensual level, along with electronic music tuned to animations of sacred geometry, thought-provoking quotes and carefully selected musical performances, so the participants can adapt similar feelings and sensations of oneness & empathy experienced during a psychedelic session.

Awaken the divine within you. Reach your full potential - take responsibility for your actions

Supported by Gaia Media Foundation & Nachtschatten Verlag
http://www.gaiamedia.org http://www.nachtschatten.ch

Audio-Artists:
Live

PRINCIPLES OF FLIGHT (F) timecode ...first time in switzerland! special psychedelic-experience theme set!
http://www.myspace.com/principlesofflight

FILTERIA (SE) suntrip
http://www.myspace.com/filteria

K.O.B. (SE) suntrip ...first time in switzerland
http://www.myspace.com/kindofbehaviour

BUFO (DK) cosmic conspiracy
http://www.myspace.com/bufobeat

PSYPOX (DK) zenon records ...first time in switzerland - presents his new album
http://www.myspace.com/psypox

ANAKOLUTH (CH) cronomi records
http://www.myspace.com/romanakl

FINSTERTROLL (CH) hotzenplotz
http://www.myspace.com/finstertroll


Dj-Sets

ORGANIX (NL) iono ...first time in switzerland!
http://www.myspace.com/organixpsy

MILOSZ usp
http://www.myspace.com/uspdnb

MUTARO (D) alice-d
http://www.myspace.com/mutaro665

NYGMA fraka
http://www.myspace.com/nygmathefraka

PSYLORG AND JAN bmr
http://www.myspace.com/psylorg

IMOX free freak
http://www.myspace.com/deejayimox

DEMENTIO AND SCHROEDER hotzenplotz


Video-Artists:

Tina - Time Wave Zero
Website: www.psy-film.com

David - Aleph
Website: www.alephdesign.com


"Psychedelics make you aware that everything is alive, sacred, and connected. I presume and hope that everybody will ultimately come to that conclusion; it cannot possibly be the privilege of the few. But it is everyone’s right to first be given the basic necessities of life: nourishment, safety, and respect. After this, the psychedelic experience can become available."
Laura Archera Huxley – 1997

"Psychedelics can’t give you a permanent spiritual immersion. But they can give faith about the existence of these other planes, and you need faith as a foundation for spiritual practices. ... Psychedelics can open doors, and if later you want to revisit these spiritual planes, having had such experiences will make it easier."
Ram Dass – 1997

"Psychedelics certainly startled and shook the Western world. But one of the greatest surprises was that psychedelics produced religious experiences. A significant number of people, including staunch atheists and Marxists, claimed to have found kensho in a capsule, moksha in a mushroom, or satori in a psychedelic. In fact, these claims proved so consistent over so many years that some researchers have renamed psychedelics "entheogens" substances that facilitate awareness of God within."
Charles S. Grob and Roger Walsh

"If we could sniff or swallow something that would, for five or six hours each day, abolish our solitude as individuals, atone us with our fellows in a glowing exultation of affection and make life in all its aspects seem not only worth living, but divinely beautiful and significant, and if this heavenly, world-transfiguring drug were of such a kind that we could wake up [the] next morning with a clear head and a undamaged constitution - then, it seems to me, all our problems (and not merely the one small problem of discovering a novel pleasure) would be wholly solved and the earth would become paradise."
Aldous Huxley

"There is an almost sensual longing for communion with others who have a larger vision. The immense fulfillment of the friendships between those engaged in furthering the evolution of consciousness has a quality almost impossible to describe."
Teilhard de Chardin